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Gio stepped back. ‘Leah?’ he breathed roughly.
‘You lied and I couldn’t forgive that,’ Leah admitted tightly.
‘You’re a vengeful little soul, aren’t you?’ Gio murmured with grim amusement as he extended something to her.
‘What’s this?’ Leah muttered, staring down at the black and gold business card he had handed her, her body still quivering from that kiss that had liquefied her bones and filled her with an almost unbearable craving.
‘My phone number. In case you change your mind...Buongiorno, Spike, better luck next time,’ Gio said in an aside as the little dog tried and failed to get his mouth into the back of his denim-clad calf, and then turned back to her to add, ‘Or should there be consequences for the little mishap we had.’
Leah was struggling to understand how he could be so hot and sexy and yet make her want to slap him at the same time, but at that reminder she lost colour and dug the card into her pocket. ‘Unlikely,’ she replied flatly.
‘That’s some powerful chemistry,’ Sally commented, coming up behind her as Gio drove off. ‘Takes some backbone to say no to that.’
‘No...it only takes common sense,’ Leah contradicted tautly.
In the aftermath of the sickness, Leah freshened up, grimacing at her watering eyes and her pallor in the mirror. She looked awful, felt worse, if that were possible. And she was only twenty weeks pregnant. Her fond belief that what had happened to her mother wouldn’t happen to her had been foolish. She had conceived and now she had to deal with her plight. For the past month after the doctor had confirmed her suspicions and outlined her options, Leah had been lost inside her own head, making and discarding unrealistic plans.
From an early stage she had known that she would keep her baby and raise it. She had lost her entire family growing up but now she felt as though she was receiving a second chance at having a family and nobody was going to take that opportunity away from her. True, the way she was having her first child, alone and without support, was far from being ideal. But, sometimes, life threw up the unexpected and it had to be handled. She was excited about her baby and didn’t feel that she could freely express that truth because becoming a young single mother put her into a category that some liked to mock and deride.
Sally, predictably, wanted her to stay with her to have the baby but Leah was determined that the older woman should not pay forhercarelessness. And a young child in the household would definitely be an added burden. Rediscovering her independence, Leah reflected, was a necessity.
For that reason she was moving back to London to take up a live-in job as a companion/carer for an elderly woman. Sally had argued vehemently about that decision, but Leah knew that it was time to stand on her own feet again. She had no idea as yet what she would do to support herself after her baby was born but thought that, with her business degree, she might be able to find paid employment that allowed her to work remotely. If she was able to support herself, she would be willing to move back in with Sally then.
It was also time that she informed Gio Zanetti that in a few months’ time he would be a father. She had no idea how he would feel about that, but she acknowledged his right to know. Keep it impersonal, she urged herself, that being the attitude she had sworn to take. He was unlikely to be pleased at her news but then she wasn’t that pleased either that the father of her child was a liar.
Recalling that truth, she lifted her chin and reached for her phone because she had been putting off contacting Gio for long enough.
‘It’s Leah,’ she announced when he answered. ‘Leah Ramsay. We met at Shore House.’
‘I haven’t forgotten,’ he intoned, his dark deep drawl shimmying down her spine and up again, sending a ridiculous little shiver of awareness through her.
‘I need to see you to discuss something—’
‘Something?’a faint chilling note laced his intonation.
‘I won’t take up much of your time. Ten minutes at most,’ Leah asserted tightly. ‘I’ll be in London in two weeks.’
‘I’ll text you an address and a time,’ Gio responded flatly and rang off.
Well, that was short and sweet, Leah conceded ruefully. Had he guessed? She supposed it was better all-round if he had, at least, an inkling. Thirty minutes later, her phone buzzed with the address of an apartment building and a time that suited her.
It was a very fancy apartment block with that sleek elegant air that just screamed expense. Fresh from moving into her damp bedsit in a basement, Leah was less well groomed than she had planned to be. Since her return to London she had been very busy completing a long list of tasks for her new employer. Mrs Evans was a kind woman, independent and pleasant, but her reluctance to bother her daughter with constant requests had ensured that many of her needs went unmet until Leah’s arrival.
Leah wore jeans, a jazzy long-sleeved top and ankle boots, a practical outfit she had donned for a shopping trip, and she carried a bag crammed with the craft supplies she had collected for her elderly charge. Gio occupied the penthouse suite and an older man dressed like an old-fashioned manservant answered the door and ushered her through an opulent foyer into a large lounge area, decorated in tranquil greys with flashes of turquoise. The luxury was quiet and understated but she was very much aware of feeling that she did not belong in such a rarefied milieu. There Gio awaited her, spinning round from a tall window overlooking a leafy roof garden to study her with narrowed mercury-bright eyes.
Her heart began to hammer inside her chest, her mouth drying, her tummy tightening. It had only been a few months, but she had still contrived to forget the intensity of his physical impact and the spectacular good looks that literally stopped her in her tracks. Every honed and chiselled inch of him commanded her attention. There was nothing laid-back about either his appearance or his stance, not the smallest hint of informality or relaxation. He was sheathed in a beautifully cut charcoal suit that fitted him to perfection, outlining broad shoulders, lean hips and long, strong legs. A dark blue shirt was set off by a grey tie. Tension was etched into the hard cast of his lean, darkly handsome features, his bronzed skin taut over his slashing cheekbones and strong sculpted jaw. He had guessed, she registered, he had guessed what she was coming to tell him. But even that knowledge could not prevent the demeaning tightening at the heart of her or the prickling of her nipples, the soaring shameless surge of sexual awareness that she could not suppress.
Gio scrutinised her with innate concentration. She was paler than he remembered, smaller too, but the tumbled black curls, the beautiful eyes and clear creamy skin were unchanged, and hunger sparked in him at unnerving speed, intimate recollections teasing at the edges of his usually disciplined mind. He hadn’t forgotten her, no, he certainly hadn’t forgotten her in spite of every effort to do so.
He shifted position, irritated by the warning throb at his groin, inwardly talking himself down from that sexual edge while questioning what it was about her that so easily revved his engine. She had walked away from him and he wasn’t used to rejection, at least not since he was a child. Back then he had met with rejection at every corner. Rejection from neighbours, classmates, teachers, from all those people who could see him only as the loser son of a vicious drug dealer, guaranteed to follow in his papa’s footsteps. He had learned early to fight rejection and simply accepting it was still a challenge for him. But he had not chased Leah, he had respected her decision, which made the current situation all the more infuriating. Gio preferred to be in charge when trouble kicked off...and if she was about to tell him what he assumed, itwastrouble.
‘Obviously you’re here to tell me that you’re pregnant,’ Gio murmured coolly, his silvery gaze tough and penetrating as steel. ‘But that’s not a discussion I’m willing to have with you yet—’
Taken aback by that blunt opening speech, Leah paled. ‘It’s...not?’ she heard herself say in confusion.
‘No, it would be pointless for us to discuss anything without proof—’
‘Proof that I’m pregnant?’ Leah queried. ‘You know, it would have been nice if you had at least greeted me, asked me how I am and invited me to take a seat—’
